Guns and Poses
by quixoticSorceress
Summary: College artist Jade Harley's boyfriend just broke up with her, so she's having a pretty bad day. She'd be happy to just hit up her friend Roxy to forget all about it, but life has other plans—because she already set up an appointment with her ex-boyfriend's brother, the famous model Dirk Strider. Title (and most of the fic idea) credit to borggunslinger. T for swearing


TG: jade bb  
>TG: u need 2 just relkax<br>TG: *relaf  
>TG: *fuk it<br>TG: boys wil b boys  
>TG: u just hav 2 accept it<br>TG: n move on :3  
>TG: single girls are hot u kno<br>GG: i know that but its not that easy!  
>GG: i really thought that dave was special :(<br>TG: awe bb shhhhhjhh  
>TG: u kno what u should come out w me n janey<br>TG: were hittin the bar cuz its saturdyay so what elses woud we do lmao  
>GG: sigh, i wish i could!<br>GG: the problem is that i already made an appointment with dirk…  
>TG: o<br>TG: ye thats a prboblem  
>TG: *problem<br>TG: well cant help u there frend  
>TG: its k hun dirks not gonna b mean about it<br>TG: n if he is let me kno so i can kick his ass :3  
>GG: thanks roxy<br>GG: that means a lot to me :(  
>TG: smiiiiile bb<br>TG: ppl love ur smile  
>GG: i have to go now, hell be waiting for me<br>GG: bye roxy!  
>TG: byeeee<br>TG: good luck bb :3 :3 :3

Jade sighed and turned off the computer, resting her head in her hands. It was a Saturday in late April, only about a week and a half since Dave Strider, her boyfriend of three years, had broken up with her. Since then, it had been particularly difficult to focus on her schoolwork. The fact that they didn't attend any classes together made it somewhat easier, and she had been slowly recovering—until today, when she'd asked Dave's older brother, Dirk, to model for her for an assignment. Of course, she'd asked him well before the two of them had ended things, but now the assignment was due this coming week, and she couldn't cancel the appointment without her grade suffering. For someone attending an art & design college, she had quite the stressful workload! She sighed again as she gathered her supplies. She knew Roxy was right, and that Dirk would be reasonable, but she wasn't sure she wanted a blatant reminder of how little she meant to his younger brother.

She kept her head down as she left her dorm room and started walking towards the classroom where she'd told him to meet her. On a Saturday, there wouldn't be any students there, and she'd asked her professor beforehand to make sure the room would be empty. Now she wasn't sure that had been a good idea, but at the time she'd still been madly in love. How stupid she'd been…

She shook her head to clear the thoughts as she reached the door. _Okay, deep breaths…_ She counted to ten in her head, forcing herself to calm down, and then turned the handle. The familiar classroom lay in half-darkness, lit only by the windows along one wall. In the dim lighting she saw Dirk with his back to her. The black suit he wore melded into the shadows and the desk he perched on, making his spiky blonde hair stand out in stark contrast. He himself was a study in contrasts, she thought; his pale skin contrasting to the dark sunglasses he always wore, and his bright red irises against his black pupils… No, orange. Orange irises. This was Dirk, not Dave. She cleared her throat quietly. "Good morning."

He turned to face her, a slight, sympathetic smile on his face. "Hey, Jade." That was it; just a greeting, no mention of the breakup or his brother, just a 'hey, how are you' as if nothing was wrong. She let out a relieved breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Of course Dirk wouldn't bring that up. "How are you, Dirk?"

"Well, a pretty girl asked me to model for her, so I'm feeling pretty good about myself," he teased, and she blushed slightly. "Oh, really? You have another appointment today?"

He laughed, and she smiled softly, mirroring him. "Funny. Anyway, shall we get started?"

She nodded slightly. "I was thinking I'd have you sit on the desk over here, with your back to the window…" As she described what she'd had in mind, he moved obediently, never questioning what she wanted. Only one of her requests made him hesitate. "Could you take off your glasses?"

His hand tightened on the desk, and she, noticing his discomfort, quickly adjusted. "Or at least slide them down a bit, and look up at me?" He gave a small, almost grateful nod and did as she asked. She gave him one more appraising look. "That's perfect."

"I know I am."

She chuckled and sat down behind her easel, pushing her glasses up on her nose and pulling her pencil out from behind her ear. He was still watching her—whether from her instructions or something else, she couldn't tell—but she tried to ignore it, settling into the familiar rhythm of drawing. First she outlined basic shapes, and then moved onto the details. It was rather intimate, she supposed, to draw someone; she'd done it with Dave once. It gave you a reason to notice every little detail about them and pushed you to see them more in-depth than you ever had before. For instance, while drawing Dirk, she could see how his shoulders slouched just like Dave's, and how his fingers were calloused from their sword battles on the roof, and how the black suit he was wearing looked just like what Dave wore to their senior prom…

Before she could stop herself, she was crying, biting her lip to keep from breaking down into full-out sobs. In an instant Dirk was beside her, his hand resting comfortingly on her arm. "Hey. What's wrong?"

She sniffed, wiping at her eyes. "I-I just… I keep thinking of him."

His arm went around her shoulders, and she leaned on him slightly. He stroked her hair. "I'd tell you it's alright, but I know you don't wanna hear that bullshit, so I won't. I'll just say I know how you feel and leave it at that." There was a long silence before he spoke again. "And I'm here for you, okay? If that's not too weird."

"Thank you," she whispered sincerely, and he held her tighter. "Don't thank me. I'm just doing the right thing. Dave's an ass if he can't see how amazing you are. And I meant what I said earlier, about a pretty girl asking me to model for her. I meant you."

She glanced up at him, touched, but not knowing what to say. Only then did she realize he'd taken his glasses off and left them on the desk he'd been sitting on before. His gold-orange eyes held hers, making it impossible to look away. For some reason, she didn't pull back as he leaned in. She knew she should, knew that this wasn't the answer to her problems, but at the same time… When his lips met hers, she closed her eyes, leaning in instead of away. One of his hands rested comfortingly on her back, and the other cupped her cheek, his thumb rubbing in comforting circles on her skin. They held the contact for a long moment, and then he pulled back gently, resting his forehead against hers. "I shouldn't have done that."

"You shouldn't have," she agreed, but her tone wasn't angry. She sounded almost content, for the first time in a week and a half. Some part of her knew that it was more than wrong for her to be kissing her ex's brother so soon, but most of her didn't care. She remembered all the times he'd greeted her or hung out with her and Roxy and Dave, how he'd teased Dave about wanting to steal her away, how he'd defended her when Dave had gotten angry. She laughed softly, wondering why she couldn't see all this time how much he'd cared about her, even—especially—when Dave hadn't.

"What's so funny?"

"You. Us. This situation. You shouldn't have kissed me, but… I'm glad you did."

She heard more than saw his smile. "Does that mean I can do it again?"

She answered his question with a kiss.

* * *

><p>AN: #sofluffyicoulddie

Ok so borggunslinger on Tumblr and I were talking about crack ships and Dirk/Jade somehow came up and he said he liked model!Dirk fics and then it could be called Guns n Poses and then this kind of happened and help I think I have a new OTP

All aboard the DirkJade canoe! We will ship it to hell and back

(Cover art by orangekittens on Tumblr)


End file.
